Augmented Reality is a technology that involves the superimposition of computer graphics on the real world. For instance, the first-down line often seen in television broadcasts of American football games is one example of a limited application of Augmented Reality. When the superimposed object represents a physical object, it is desirable for the superimposed physical object to blend into the real world and appear realistic.
Augmented Reality applications are presently used to display a virtual object in the Augmented Reality environment. In particular, a live camera image may be rendered on the display to represent a view of the physical world. A virtual object may then be superimposed on the image target. The virtual object tracks the position and orientation of the image target in real-time so that the viewer's perspective on the virtual object corresponds with their perspective on the image target, and it appears that the virtual object is tightly coupled to the real world.
Although the virtual object tracks the position and orientation of the image target, in present implementations, virtual objects do not track the visual appearance, such as color, of the image target. For example, when there is a change of lighting conditions in the image target, the hue of the virtual object does not change accordingly, as a real object in the image target would. As a result, the realism of the virtual object is diminished.